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There are now several different courts of appeals that have upheld the right of individuals to post a non-commercial website using the domain name www.company.com, and there are as yet NO appellate decisions that forbid such websites outside the context of the serial cybersquatter who tries to erect a so-called gripe site as a CYA measure after being sued. In fact, it seems to me that we are getting close to the point where companies that sue over such websites have to consider seriously the possibility that they will not only lose the suit, but face a malicious prosecution action... more
A third lawsuit has been filed late Friday in a federal district court in California against VeriSign, Inc. over its controversial DNS wildcard redirection service known as SiteFinder. It was filed by the longtime Internet litigator Ira Rothken. In addition, while two other lawsuits have been filed by Go Daddy Software, Inc. and Popular Enterprises, LLC. in Arizona and Florida, this is the first lawsuit to seek class-action status. Here is an excerpt from the "Introduction" section of this class-action lawsuit... more
When it comes to stealing domain names, I suspect that there are two reasons why so many web bandits appear to be immune from ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers uses the acronym ICANN): the first reason I discussed in my last column on domain name theft (where I described a substantive void in domain name "regulation" as a primary factor for the increasing incidence of domain name theft), the second reason, which is the focus of this column, is the procedural anomaly that currently infuses ICANN's uniform dispute resolution process (UDRP) by providing no administrative forum for domain name registrants who become victims of domain name theft carried out by ICANN's registrars. more
In a bid to bolster cybersecurity in India's financial sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced exclusive internet domains -- 'bank.in' for registered banks and 'fin.in' for non-banking financial entities. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra revealed that registrations for 'bank.in' will commence in April 2025, followed by 'fin.in', with the initiative aimed at reducing phishing attempts and fortifying digital banking trust. more
The FCA has been naming and shaming financial scam domains for decades. Its "warning list" is probably one the most extensive databases of its kind. But does it do a good enough job of actually warning people? Let us begin with the FCA website, which would not exactly get full points for user-friendliness: locating the "watch list" is a task in and of itself, to say nothing of consulting and scrutinising it. more
The EARN IT Act was reintroduced into Congress last Monday, with the promise that it would end Internet platforms' "blanket immunity" for "tens of millions of photos and videos" of child sexual abuse that they allow to circulate online. With the bill already scheduled for hearing in committee, it's on track to be passed quickly. And why shouldn't it be, if its sponsors' claims about it are true? Perhaps because they're not true. more
There's a bit of a debate going on about whether the Kaseya attack exploited a 0-day vulnerability. While that's an interesting question when discussing, say, patch management strategies, I think it's less important to understand attackers' thinking than understand their target selection. In a nutshell, the attackers have outmaneuvered defenders for almost 30 years when it comes to target selection. more
How much phishing is there? Where is it occurring, and why? How can it be reduced? I and my colleagues at Interisle Consulting have just published a new study called Phishing Landscape 2020, designed to answer those questions. We assembled a deep set of data from four different, respected threat intelligence providers and enriched it with additional DNS data and investigation. The result is a look at phishing attacks that occurred in May through July 2020. more
Surveillance capitalism monetizes private data that it collects without consent of the individuals concerned, data to analyze and sell to advertisers and opinion-makers. There was always an intricate relationship between governments and surveillance capitalists. Governments have the duty to protect their citizens from the excesses of surveillance capitalism. On the other hand, governments use that data, and surveillance capitalism's services and techniques. more
Like measuring COVID's impact, so too measuring the impact of COVID-related abuse on the Internet is difficult, there are those that would foolishly dismiss the danger entirely, others over-state the problem, perhaps to prompt sales of tools and services. The amount and type of abuse varies from network to network, and to declare everything is fine based on one world-view you believe to be ubiquitous, or that the sky is falling based upon another, extrapolated to 'everybody else' is simply poor analysis. more
As widely reported, and not surprising, the internet is swimming in COVID-19 online scams. Criminals, accustomed to rapidly grabbing online territory during times of crisis and profiting from public fear, are working overtime in the face of the coronavirus. Unfortunately, ICANN's failure to enforce its minimal WHOIS and DNS abuse requirements has resulted in delayed mitigation efforts at a time when swift responses are needed to protect the public from COVID-19 scams. more
A group of leading domain name registries and registrars have joined forces in the fight against abuse in the Domain Name System (DNS), by developing a "Framework to Address Abuse." Each contributing company has shared its expertise and experience mitigating abusive practices with the goal of submitting the resulting Framework as a foundational document for further discussion in the multistakeholder community. more
Business email compromised (BEC) attacks targeting American companies are exploding, with an increase of over 476% in incidents between Q4 2017 and Q4 2018. Up as well is email fraud with companies experiencing an increase of over 226%. These highly targeted attacks use social engineering to identify specific company employees, usually in the finance department and then convince these employees to wire large sums of money to third-party banking accounts owned by the attackers. more
Hackers behind the massive data breach of the hotel group Marriott International Inc have left clues suggesting ties to the Chinese government intelligence-gathering operation. more
Millions of email warnings were sent out by Marriot on Friday to warn customers about the massive data breach which has affected close to half a billion guest data. more
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